Never Again: Auschwitz 70 years later

January 27 2015 marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by the Soviet army. This day is commemorated in the world as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The Auschwitz Concentration Camp was located in Polish territory that had become part of Nazi Germany during World War II. The camp was managed by the Nazi SS or Schutzstaffel, the main paramilitary branch of the Third Reich.

The Auschwitz concentration camp became one of the main elements in carrying out the Nazi’s plan to fully exterminate the Jewish population. This plan, also known as “the Final Solution to the Jewish question” had the objective to annihilate the entire Jewish population of the world. It was through extermination camps like Auschwitz that this plan was implemented as it allowed the Nazis to kill large numbers of Jewish in a short period of time through the use of the infamous gas chambers.

It is estimated that between May 1940 – Jan 1945 at least 1.1 million people were murdered in this death camp. While 90% of the victims were Jewish, among the victims there were also significant groups of Soviet prisoners of war, homosexuals, disabled people, dissidents, non-Jewish Poles, Gypsies and Sinti. The Auschwitz concentration camp became the site of the largest mass execution of human beings ever recorded in history.

The capacity and extent to which the Nazis were able to exterminate human beings became so horrifyingly good that it is fair to say that the Auschwitz concentration camp is the epitome of human horror. For the first time in the Auschwitz concentration camp, technology, science and the advances made during the industrial revolution were put together to orchestrate massive and systematic murders.

The end of Auschwitz came in January 1945 when the Soviet army approached the camp and finally liberated its survivors on January 27 2015. Unfortunately, just days before the Soviet troops arrived, Nazi officials evacuated most prisoners at the camp and sent them on a death march. The purpose of this was to avoid letting the world know the extent of the crimes and horrors that had been committed in this camp. It is estimated that of the 60, 000 people forced to move from Auschwitz, around 15, 000 died.

Since 1947, the Auschwitz concentration camp is a museum and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The museum aims to remind the world not just about the extent of the damage the Nazis did to the world, but also the horrors human beings are capable of doing to one another.

On January 26 more than 3,000 guests and dignitaries from around the world, as well as 300 Holocaust survivors gathered in Auschwitz to commemorate the anniversary of their release and freedom exactly 70 years ago. The ceremony was centered around celebrating the lives of survivors, as well as reminding the world of the horrors committed at Auschwitz as well as the responsibility to never forget and allow this to ever happen again.